Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Comfort make-up


Never have I heard the this experience described so accurately before.

You know how it is. You’re pregnant with your second child, you’ve got the first one howling at your hip, you haven’t brushed your hair and you may well be wearing yesterday’s pants and, whoa – you bump into an ex-boyfriend. He has his arm slung casually over the shoulder of some slip of a thing, all skinny jeans and floppy spaghetti bra-straps. They’ve clearly spent the morning in bed. You, on the other hand, haven’t slept properly for a year, and have the kind of bra straps that would hold up the Severn Bridge.

. . .

You can almost hear him saying it: “Honestly, babe, she never looked like that when I was going out with her.” You fancy you hear her giggle.

Just you wait, you seethe under your breath, just you wait, and then suddenly you feel utterly deflated. You catch a glimpse of yourself in a shop mirror and before you know it, you’re in SpaceNK and talking to a lady with eyelash extensions. You want something for under the eyes, a cream to get rid of wrinkles, maybe some mascara, blusher and, yes, a lipstick, definitely a lipstick. Nothing gives you a lift like lipstick, does it? You don’t even ask for prices. Twenty minutes later you leave almost £100 lighter, clutching a bag of tricks you know you’ll never use but which, magically, makes you feel better.

Comfort make-up. It’s a lot like comfort eating, only more expensive and less fattening. And no one does it better than Laura Mercier.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I usually end up buying lipstick in a color that makes my husband go "Arrrrrgh!". When I'm feeling bad and shop there's a very, very slim chance I will actually wear (or like) whatever it was I bought. Which then makes me feel worse about myself. So I go shop. Enter vicious cycle.

Anonymous said...

I´ve said this before,but I don´t like shopping. When this finally happens, I´d like to have some privacy.Not thrilled to get the saleswoman´s opinion what fits and what they prefer. I guess they say about the same things to all the customers,cause that´s their job. And the lightning is just terrible in some places. Everything you put on makes you ugly and from such places I run out as fast as I can!

Anonymous said...

For me, it's not lipstick, it's getting my hair done. It doesn't matter whether it's just a wash, or a cut or even the whole works, but it does have much of the same effect: I feel pampered; my hair looks a whole lot better (at least for that moment), and I'm not so crazy.

Cal said...

And of course she's looking at you and thinking 'why can't I find a man who will commit and with whom I will have babies like this woman has managed' and 'will this man who has his arm around me now actually call me tomorrow and be there next month' and so she too goes and buys comfort make up.

Kelly said...

Oh, definitely. I buy more makeup when I'm sad than anything else. A recent breakup left me with five different identical shades of nail polish, bare minerals foundation and candy-pink lipstick. Among many other things.

Anonymous said...

Wow, totally true. I think I buy lots of new makeup whenever I feel like I have a new challenge. I've got lots of interviews happening in the next few months, so got new Armani foundation and 2 Laura Mercier lipsticks (loooove the lipsticks, highly recommended). They're like my secret weapons.